The A85 chipset and Socket FM2

With the launch of Llano alongside came A75 motherboards, with Trinity that would be A85 (or I should really say A85X). The APU's all have an embedded Northbridge, the motherboards do need some sort of a Southbridge for external connectivity and other controllers. This takes the form of the A75/A85X chipset, also known as the Southbridge or FCH. It connects from the APU's PCI-Express 2.0 bus over four links to the chipset.

New is the A85X series chipsets for FM2 socket processors. It's a little more enthusiast in terms of features.

In regard to chipset differences, the motherboards will ship with either a A85X or A75 FCH. Now please understand that A75 can actually be used with both Llano and Piledriver APUs so you can expect channel penetration with brands using the A75 FCH but tagging it as 'A85'. Then there is A85X which has eight SATA 6 Gbps ports embedded (as you can see from the upper chart) native opposed to six on A75. Aside from RAID 5 support that really is the biggest difference.

Now then, A85X can support 2x8 lane for Crossfire multi-GPU configurations. So for A85 handles eight SATA-600 ports with support for RAID 0, 1 and 10. That is alongside 10 USB 2.0 ports, 2 USB 1.1 ports and yes, four native USB 3.0 ports straight out of the A85 chipset. Obviously the chipset also offers support for the older PCI slot, up-to three of them.

This is all managed inside the FCH, thus motherboard manufacturers do not have to purchase extra USB 3.0 and SATA controllers, making the bill of materials a chunk smaller and cheaper.

An interesting point with Trinity processors is that AMD introduces a new socket - FM2.

The Trinity APUs overview

At launch AMD will be releasing six Trinity based APUs with two different TDPs (100/65W). Have a look at the overview below as to what you may expect.

AMD A8 5600K reviewWe review the AMD A8 5600K APU processor. Based on the APU architecture and building on the strengths of the Llano design, the 2012 AMD A-Series platform has been updated to meet and exceed the increasing demands of today’s consumers.